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I would love to have the time to talk to you, but life gets so hectic sometimes.
Especially when you have two teens, a husband, a career, and doctoral studies to attempt to keep up with!
Just think of this as a phone call in cyberspace. Keep up your end of the conversation and comment, please!

Scout Sunday and the Very Bad Mommy

When it comes to Boy Scouts, as soon as Gameboy hears "We need some boys to", the hand is up in the air. The next words someday might be "shovel pig poop", but he's already volunteered to do it. This is a good thing, because in nearly a year as a Boy Scout, he's put in plenty of service hours. It's a habit I'd like him to continue.

Last Tuesday night, the "We need" happened, the hand went up and my son volunteered himself to be an usher for Scout Sunday. It is the Sunday nearest the February 8th anniversary of Boy Scouting. As stated on the BSA web site:A Scout is Reverent

The Boy Scouts of America designates the Sunday that falls before February 8 (Scouting Anniversary Day) as Scout Sunday, which is the primary date to recognize the contributions of young people and adults to Scouting.

So it was decided by Gameboy that we would attend church on Sunday at the Lutheran church that sponsors our Troop and Pack. (and as hosts, they are wonderful!) Obviously, both boys were going. Small problem-these kids hadn't been inside a church since they were toddlers.

Yes, we are bad parents.

I am a lapsed Catholic and Ed went through a fiasco in which his church became a cult (insert long, sordid story here). We did find a church we both really liked back in Maryland, but the nearest congregations of that denomination are in Orlando and Tampa. Instead, we tend to discuss Christianity with the boys in a more direct manner, without the trappings of a pastor and a congregation around us. For a nine year old, Chef holds his own very well in conversations of a theological nature.

So, the drive over to Brandon was made and the Mom in me went over what they could expect in church and what was expected of them, namely:Be quiet, like when the principal is speaking in an assemblyDon't fidgetPay attention to the pastorStand when you're supposed toNo humming, squealing or singingDo whatever the Scout in charge tells you to doBe quiet

If you're a regular churchgoer, you're probably noticing I missed something. Other than my brother's wedding, I had not set foot in a Lutheran church sanctuary. When I received confirmation lessons many years ago, I recall talking about the Catholic church being the only one in which we received communion weekly.

You know what? The Lutherans do.

By virtue of my boys Ushering for this service, I was not seated with them. Once I realized that hey, Lutherans receive communion, the klaxon bells went off in my head "HOLY CRAP! THE BOYS CAN'T TAKE COMMUNION AND I DIDN'T TELL THEM!"

Frantically, I tried to mouth across the aisle "DON'T GO UP THERE!" to my boys, which they promptly ignored. They're good at that, considering they ignore me daily. Mom's telling me to do something? I'll pretend I don't see/hear her.

Thus, they went up to the communion rail and I'm dying of mortification that they'll take communion wafers and consecrated wine like substance and they're still saddled with original sin because their parents aren't big organized religion people. Besides the church we belonged to did adult baptisms.

They went to the rail, the deacon came up and spoke to both boys and it appeared they had, indeed, received these items. Oh, crap! I'm going to burn in hell because I didn't tell them that no way, no how, under no circumstances do you receive communion.

The next ten minutes, I sang the hymms with the congregation thinking that I am horrible for not telling them, what kind of questions are they going to have for me and did they commit some sort of faux pas while at the rail?

Apparently, the deacon arrived at Gameboy first and not recognizing him, asked if he had received his first communion. His answer of "I don't know" was enough for her, and she said "God loves you, God Bless you". The same was done of Chef when she realized they were together.

Phew!

Thus began a half hour conversation of what exactly was that wafer and drink? I explained the Catholic view, but realized that while the services are very similar (but the Lutherans sing a lot more, which I liked), the part about the body and blood of Christ was rather different. At that point, I was trying real hard to catch the boys attention not to take of it, so I didn't catch the Pastor's words.

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